With the ever-growing market for energy conservation systems within the United States and globally, there is increasing demand and interest for systems and techniques that enable energy conservation, while demonstrating economic and environmental responsibility as well.
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is the technology of indoor and vehicular environmental comfort. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. HVAC systems account for a significant share of energy consumption in most commercial and industrial buildings. Many industrial energy consumers also require process heating and process cooling systems for manufacturing operations. These systems are often energy intensive and can become quite expensive when run during peak electrical demand hours.
Thermal Energy Storage (TES) systems may be used for HVAC/process applications to shift some of the energy requirements to off-peak hours. The efficiency gains and operational flexibility afforded by TES systems for HVAC/process applications have made investment in this type of infrastructure very attractive to consumers. Many industrial energy consumers also often produce excess “waste heat” from various manufacturing processes, which can be converted into useable electricity utilizing Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) generators or other “heat-to-power” generators. This “free” power generation is only useful if the energy is produced during times of energy demand, which may not correlate with the times when waste heat is produced. Energy storage methods afford the ability to decouple this energy generation from energy consumption and provide “on-demand” power generation. Thermal energy storage is still much more cost-effective than electrochemical energy storage (batteries) and thus is more attractive to waste-heat consumers.
Many methods have been implemented for thermal energy storage at various temperatures and capacity levels; these temperatures vary between −30° F. and greater than 200° F. This variability results in a constant demand for new TES systems to be implemented, potentially increasing economic impact seen by those implementing TES systems.